The Transatlantic Set Up
by Emma-face
Summary: Skye finds a phone in her local coffee shop and decides to be a good Samaritan and return it to the owner. It turns out though that it's not as simple as she first thought.


Skye was in the middle of what was shaping up to be a 24 hour work day. They had received a tip that some terrorist type group was planning to hack SHIELD's systems which meant she had been up all night creating a new security program and installing it to protect their data. It had taken all night but she was incredibly proud of the program she had designed; it was almost hack proof and given that she was once one of the most notorious hackers in the country she knew what she was talking about. She only wished that designing the program meant her work was finished but she still had to go back to the office and spend the next few hours talking the foreign offices through installing the new program. She had just enough time to grab a bite to eat and a cup of coffee before she went back to work. She trudged into a nearby coffee shop and ordered an extra large black coffee with a double shot of espresso from the teenage boy behind the counter. She had wanted more caffeine but the barista assured her that two shots was the maximum he was allowed to add, any more and the cup would over flow. She accepted her to go cup from the boy and moved along to the additive station. She grabbed a handful of sugar packets and began dumping them into her cup. When she reached for a stirrer her hands brushed an iphone sitting on the counter. Some poor over-tired worker must have forgotten it on their way to work. She pressed a plastic lid onto her cup and picked up the phone. What should she do with it? She considered handing it in behind the counter but figured that would only work if the owner remembered leaving it there. Given that they had been absent minded enough to leave their phone at a coffee shop she wasn't sure they'd remember where to look for their phone.

Making her way out onto the street she unlocked the phone – no password, must be a trusting person – and brought up the contact list. She figured she would find someone on the list that she could call and let them know she had the phone and find a way to get it back to them. Scrolling through a few names she found a contact labelled 'Mum' that seemed like a fairly safe option. She pressed the call button and hoped for the best. On the third or fourth ring she realised that this was actually a rather stupid idea but it was too late to back out because someone answered.

"Hello?" a soft voice answered in an English accent.

"Uh...yeah...hi...hello," Skye stammered, the accent had kind of threw her. "This might sound a little strange but I found this phone, I think it's your child's phone, in a coffee shop. They must have left it behind and I was hoping to get it back to them."

"Wow! That's very kind of you. A lot of people probably wouldn't have just kept the phone or ignored it," the woman sounded nice and friendly and thankfully she wasn't completely put off by the strange nature of the phone call. "Yes, that would be Jemma's phone you're calling from. Jemma is my daughter. It's not like her to leave things behind, she's been working a lot lately, she must have been half asleep when she left it behind. I'm sure she'll be frantic when she realises it's missing."

"Well if someone found my phone I'd hope they'd do the same for me," she shrugged, shying from the stranger's praise.

"Don't be so modest, I'm sorry I didn't get your name dear."

"Uh, Skye. I'm Skye."

"It's nice to speak to you Skye. You can call me Helen."

"Ok."

"Well Skye, I'm afraid we have a bit of a problem here. You see Jemma will be at work right now and I don't actually have her contact details for and while I would happily come pick it up myself, I'm afraid that's not possibly either because I'm in England right now, I'm sure the accent makes much more sense now," she chuckled.

"A little," Skye chuckled too. "I would offer to drop it off at her workplace only I'm kind of on my way into work right now myself."

"Oh don't be silly dear, no need to put yourself out like that. I'm sure she'll manage without it for a few hours."

"I guess I could just bring it back to the coffee shop and leave it behind the counter, then if you get in contact with her later you could let her know it's there?" she suggested; returning this phone was turning out to be a lot more complicated than she had imagined.

"I suppose you could do that, although it's Friday and she usually only goes to the coffee shop before work but I'm sure she could go out of her way if it meant getting her phone back." Helen hummed thoughtfully.

"I could...I could give you her address," she said hesitantly. "I mean, I know you're a stranger but you seem trustworthy – you didn't try to steal the expensive phone my daughter left behind so carelessly, so you must be a nice person. And probably not a serial killer or anything."

"No, I'm not a serial killer Ma'am."

"Please, call me Helen," she insisted again.

"Alright then Helen, I can assure you that I have absolutely no intentions of harming your daughter. I really just want to return the phone," Skye promised, the end of her sentence dying in a yawn.

"You sound tired dear," Helen remarked sympathetically. Skye couldn't help but think that Jemma had a pretty nice mother.

"Yeah, a little. I've been up all night working."

"And you're going back to work? You poor thing!"

"It's fine. There was kind of an emergency at work and I'm still trying to deal with it," she explained.

"What is it you do Skye?"

"I work in IT. You know data security and that sort of thing," she gave the short answer, she learned a long time ago that the long answer tended to go over people's heads.

"Oh you must be very clever. I'm hopeless with technology myself, but I am learning," she gave another light chuckle. "My Jemma is a biochemist and at times she's in the lab to all hours. If you're anything like her I bet you're guzzling coffee like there's no tomorrow!"

Skye looked down at the caffeine loaded drink in her hand. "Yeah, kind of."

"I much prefer a cup of tea myself," she replied. "Oh but I'm getting off topic aren't I? I'm sorry. My husband says I could talk for England!"

"It's alright," Skye laughed. In truth she was actually enjoying the conversation, strange as it was. The woman on the other line just seemed so warm and friendly that Skye forgot she was actually talking to a complete stranger.

"Right, anyway...Yes Jemma's address. I know I have it written down here somewhere, we're always sending her over little care packages with tea bags and biscuits and things she can't get in America; home comforts, you know?" she said fondly, the sound of pages rustling in the background as she searched for the address then read it out to Skye.

"Oh, that's actually not far from where I live." Skye began wondering if maybe she had seen this Jemma around.

"Excellent. Wouldn't want to put you to too much bother."

"It's no trouble really. Just trying to do a good deed."

"I must say Skye, you seem like a really nice girl! And to think Jemma is constantly telling me that she can't find any nice girls to settle down with," Helen sighed.

"I have to say I'm inclined to agree with her on that one," Skye scoffed, she felt her interest in this Jemma piquing now she knew she was interested in the ladies. She wondered if she was cute and also whether or not it would be unethical to look through the girl's phone to find out if she was cute.

"Well if you ask my opinion she's probably just not looking very hard," Helen huffed indignantly then laughed. "You must think I'm a meddlesome old fool."

"No, I think it's nice that you care so much and are involved in your daughter's life." Skye found she really meant those words. They had only had a short conversation but Helen seemed to be the type of mother she'd always dreamed of having.

"She's so far away, you know, I like to try to stay involved and sometimes interrogating her about her love life, or lack of, is the only way I can," she sighed.

"It must be tough, being so far apart."

"It's not too bad, what with all this new technology we can be in contact so much that it's not much different than if she were living in another city."

"That's true."

"So I take it from your earlier comment that there's no-one special in your life at the moment?" Helen prodded.

"No," Skye answered. There hadn't been anyone special in her life in quite a while.

"And forgive me if I'm being rude but I also take it that you are interested in the ladies?"

"Yeah," Skye chuckled.

"Well if you'll forgive a meddlesome old fool for interfering but maybe you should ask my Jemma out. She's very pretty. And I'm not just saying that because I'm her mother," she assured her. "I mean you're both lovely young girls what harm could one little date do?"

"You're quick to assume that Jemma would be interested in me," Skye pointed out.

"You're quick to assume that she wouldn't be," Helen countered. "I'm not suggesting you get married or anything but maybe dinner or even just a cup of coffee. You never know, you might hit it off."

Skye laughed; she set out to do a good deed and now she was in the middle of a transatlantic blind date set up. This certainly was a strange start to the day.

"I'm just saying when you return the phone, if you like what you see or you think there might be some spark there, ask her out."

"Ok, ok," Skye relented, mostly just to get the woman off the subject.

"You promise?"

"Skye," Helen prompted when there was no response on the other line.

"Fine, I promise Helen."

"Good! She usually gets home from work around half past 6 so feel free to drop the phone in any time after that."

"Great, thanks for your help," Skye smiled, she was approaching the SHIELD office and should definitely wrap this conversation up. "I should probably get going now."

"Oh yes, of course dear. It was lovely speaking to you, stranger who found my daughter's phone," she laughed at the absurdity of it.

"It was great speaking to you too Helen."

"Have a good day at work Skye. And do try not to drink too much coffee, it's not good for you!" she warned in a caring, maternal tone Skye hadn't heard much of before.

"I'll try not to," Skye chuckled. "Bye."

"Goodbye Skye. I hope to hear more about you from Jemma in the future."

Skye ended what was quite possibly the strangest phone call she'd ever had in her life and headed into work.

After a long day of explaining the same thing over and over again to the other offices and losing count of how many stupid questions she was asked Skye finally finished work. She headed back to her apartment to shower and change out of the clothes she had been wearing since yesterday morning before she continued on her mission to return the phone to it's rightful owner. As she was getting ready she found herself wondering, as she had wondered countless times that day, about Jemma. She wondered if Jemma had an English accent or if she had lost it during her time in America. She wondered if she had maybe seen her around, given that they lived pretty close to each other and clearly frequented the same coffee shop. Mostly she hoped that Jemma wouldn't think her a complete weirdo stalker for calling her mother to get her address and showing up on her doorstep to return her missing phone. The promise she had made to Helen played on her mind too; should she ask this girl out on a date? Would Jemma even consider going on a date with a complete stranger?

At a little after 6.30 Skye left for Jemma's building and 10 minutes later she was climbing the stairs to apartment 307. She had no idea why but she was feeling slightly nervous, she was here to do a good deed after all but thanks to the conversation with Jemma's mother earlier she felt like she was meeting a blind date. She held Jemma's phone in one hand and took a deep breath before knocking the door. The door swung open to reveal a brunette woman around her age with shoulder length brown hair and big, bright hazel eyes. The polite smile she was offering made Skye's stomach clench; this girl was beautiful.

"Jemma?" Skye asked, wanting to make sure she had the right address. The girl nodded.

"You must be Skye then," she smiled and Skye was thrilled to hear that she did in fact have an English accent. A wonderfully soft, incredibly sexy English accent.

"Ah, you've heard of me!" Skye joked and Jemma chuckled softly.

"Yeah, my mum's not long off the phone. Please, come in," she said, moving aside to let Skye in.

Skye followed her down a small hallway into a cosy living room. Jemma motioned for her to take a seat on the sofa and sat down beside her. Skye drew a deep breath before launching into an explanation about why she was there.

"I'm sorry. I know this is kind of a weird situation but I found your phone and I wanted to return it because I know if I lost my phone it would be like losing an appendage. Except I didn't really know how to get it back to you so I figured I'd call someone and let them know I had your phone and your Mom seemed like a safe bet."

"It's ok," Jemma halted her rambling with a chuckle and accepted the phone Skye was holding out to her. "I'm really grateful you found my phone. Any one else might not have bothered. Some people would have just kept it. I mean when I realised that I'd lost it this morning I thought I would never see it again so thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'm sure my Mum was bending your ear about how irresponsible it was of me to lose my phone!"

"Actually she just said that you'd been working long hours and that you were probably tired which made you forgetful," Skye shrugged.

"It must have been quite a conversation you had. You certainly made quite an impression on her," Jemma noted, her eyes sparkling as she smiled at Skye.

"Yeah we had a good talk. She seems like a really nice lady. Not many people would have been so chatty with a stranger who called them from their kid's phone."

"Well Mum could talk for England," Jemma rolled her eyes.

"So I've heard," Skye chuckled. All the tension and awkwardness she'd been feeling before had vanished. She felt oddly comfortable around Jemma considering they had just met.

"Thanks again for returning the phone," Jemma said, turning it over in her hand and giving Skye a genuine and beaming smile. "You've saved me from the heaps of trouble and probable small fortune it would have cost me to replace it."

"It was no trouble really," Skye assured her, that smile was making her insides squirm. Jemma was gorgeous, charming and very sweet, pretty much everything Helen said she would be. Skye decided that maybe she should fulfil that promise; after all she had nothing much to lose and quite a lot to gain. "So in the spirit of all this gratefulness, I don't suppose you'd like to help me make good on a promise I made to your mother this morning?"

"And what promise was that?" Jemma smirked, her head cocked to the side, eyes fixed on Skye.

"Well she might have mentioned that you were single and maybe made me promise that I would...sort of ask you out," Skye bit her lip nervously and watched Jemma's face for a reaction. She prepared herself for rejection when Jemma shook her head and laughed softly.

"Would you believe me if I told you that she made me promise to invite you out to dinner as a thank you for returning my phone?" she asked.

"You know something, I would totally believe that," Skye laughed, Helen had clearly been hedging her bets in case Skye didn't live up to her promise. "Look I know that I am just a complete stranger who just turned up on your doorstep with your phone and you should totally feel free to say no if you want, but you seem like a really nice person and I can think of worse ways to spend an evening than getting to know you better...maybe over dinner. Or coffee. We could just have coffee if you'd prefer."

"Yeah, ok," Jemma agreed, thinking that Skye was incredibly cute when she rambled nervously.

"What?" Skye's eyes narrowed, unsure about what she just heard.

"I said yes, I'll have dinner with you," she chuckled.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not? I'd like to get to know you too and I'm kind of famished after a long day at work and you seem like you'd be good company," Jemma shrugged. "Besides it seems my mother really wants this date to happen and we wouldn't want to disappoint her now, would we?"

"We certainly would not!" Skye agreed, feeling like her insides were dancing with joy at the prospect of the date.

"So where would you like to eat?"

"Uh...I don't know," Skye stammered slightly. She really hadn't been expecting Jemma to accept her invitation never mind having the date start immediately. "Any suggestions?"

"There's a great diner just down the street that has the best burgers!" Jemma suggested.

"The Hub?" Skye asked and Jemma nodded. "I love that place. Yeah let's go there."

"Great, just let me grab my jacket."

Jemma disappeared into what Skye assumed was her bedroom leaving Skye alone in the living room to compose herself before the date. When she left her apartment she had been feeling the strain of her long work day. Her plan was to drop the phone off quickly and get back home to crawl into her comfy clothes, order takeaway and watch crap on TV until she fell asleep. It seemed scoring a date with the most amazing woman she had met in a long time had spiked her adrenaline or something because suddenly she wasn't tired, in fact she was nervously excited for this date.

"Shall we?" Jemma asked with another one of those beaming smiles as she held the door open for Skye. Skye simply nodded and followed her out the door thinking she definitely owed Jemma's mother a thank you for her transatlantic meddling.


End file.
